Scots’ support for independence surges after Brexit: poll

A new poll shows that more than half of Scottish people would vote to leave the U.K. if they would hold a second referendum on independence following Britain’s exit from the European Union.

According to a poll, commissioned by the Sunday Times, support for Scotland to break away from the U.K. has risen by seven points since Scotland’s independence referendum last year. More than 52 percent now say they’d leave while 48 percent would vote to stay in the U.K.

According to the poll, half of respondents predict that Scotland will be an independent country in the next five to 10 years, up from 30 percent in April, according to the Times.

Another poll in the Scottish newspaper The Sunday Post shows that support for Scottish independence has surged to 59 percent since Thursday when the U.K. opted out of the EU.

There have been calls and petitions for a second referendum on U.K.’s EU membership with some saying that the outcome of Thursday’s vote — 51.9 percent to 48.1 percent — was too close to prevail. A petition on the U.K. government website for a second referendum already has 2.8 million signatures.

A Survation poll commissioned by the Mail on Sunday found that one million Britons regret voting to leave the EU. The poll also shows that when asked to vote on a successor to Prime Minister David Cameron, who announced his resignation on Friday, 53 percent prefer Home Secretary Theresa May over former Mayor of London and leading Brexit advocate Boris Johnson.

pete

and a million more would have voted if they had thought they had a chance to leave

Posted on 6/26/16 | 1:55 PM CET

John McGoldrick

Left with the choice of being British AND European or Scot alone, the Scots opted to remain British. Now that they can choose to be Scottish AND European, expect them to leave the UK

Posted on 6/26/16 | 2:45 PM CET

Victor

An Independent Scotland would certainly please a lot of English who no longer have to send their money up north to subsidie The Scpttish economy. And even if Scotland would like to take the cut in prosperity it would mean,Mir won’t happen. At least not for a decade.

The EU has said that it doesn’t want an independent Scotland joining, and there’s no way they’ll have another referendum so soon after the last one. Sorry John. You can file this one under: Won’t happen.

Posted on 6/26/16 | 3:27 PM CET

James Blake

European Rap Video about the EU.

Posted on 6/26/16 | 4:03 PM CET

Yrjö Virolainen

Good riddance Scotland. Funny that you knew you would have to reapply to the EU if you won the 2014 referendum. That didn’t seem to be a problem then. Nicola Sturgeon is just a power hungry “leader”. She just wants independence for nationalistic reasons. An independent Scotland would have to reapply to the EU. It’s economy will be based off of North Sea drilling.. not too lucrative with current oil prices. Also, no more English subsidies. The little Scotland of 6 million people will be so insignificant in the EU. It will also lose its spot on the UN security council by being in the UK.

Posted on 6/26/16 | 7:50 PM CET

Maureen

… and if it was the other way around, there would be just as many, if not more, regretting voting IN. It’s only been two days, what do these people want – it’s not magic, one day in the EU and the next out and everything is marvellous – there will be a transition period. Stop being so negative, you need to believe in the British nation. We have the best people in the world. Try being a ‘my glass is half full’ and NOT ‘my glass is half empty’. I’m looking forward to a new Britain full of opportunity. You should too. Stop reading negative editorials they are paid to over sensualise and don’t always report as they should. Don’t forget the majority of newspapers came out in favour of Brexit.

Posted on 6/27/16 | 12:04 AM CET

Maureen

Goodness gracious – 2 days later and they wish they voted IN. There will always be weaker worried characters in life. It’s up to stronger characters to assure them they have voted correctly and give the change a bit of time. Rome wasn’t built in a day. They listen too much to the losing team who can’t accept the way forward and the newspapers who did actually promote Brexit but want to now sensationalise – it sells papers.

Posted on 6/27/16 | 12:32 AM CET

Michael Iger

Its not just Scotland, its Wales and Northern Ireland, too. Brexit is turning out as a vote to break up the country. It seems such an undramatic way to bring about such an historic result, all done too simply and casually by just two percentage points.